Stranger
by CashMoney the Poet
Summary: Itachi decides that the nine tailed jinchurkiki, Naruto Uzumaki, is not fit to defend himself against the Akatsuki. To protect his village, and the world, Itachi wipes Naruto's mind and sends him far away with two memories, he's an orphan, and he absolutely needs to train. From there things only continue to grow stranger. One-shot opener. Darker themes planned for latter chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Wet. Grey.

Naruto lazily stared out into the street, though he could hardly see past the drizzle. Which was all it ever really did here, at least for the past few days that he had stayed, and frankly Naruto was sick of it.

The mellow scent of green tea disrupted his musings, as a waiter set down multiple items on the table. Naruto felt that all of this rain was getting to him, he just moodily stared at Jiraiya waiting for him to dismiss the waiter and start caring to his own drink. _Sigh._ There wasn't much to do except drink tea and get wet, since only his sensei knew exactly what information he came here for.

Jiraiya's face split into a half-grin, "now Naruto, something here that's worth remembering about Swallow City's tea", Jiraiya began pouring from a kettle to the closest cup, "is the-

Jiraiya stiffened his back and frowned, garnering Naruto's attention.

"Red clouds." Jiraiya solemnly spoke. "Two just crossed the river of a mud toad a few miles away, and they're headed to the city, damnit." Jiraiya stood up, then paused for four seconds to think of a plan. It only took three seconds however, for a massive shark of ice water to smash through the tea shop.

After a dizzying explosion Naruto rolled out of a pile of debris to stand up, coughing and cradling an arm full of splinters. He scanned his surroundings for Jiraiya, but could only see various wood scraps in the rain and - Naruto double checked to see a few fingers, the size only a child could possess, and swaying in the cold, icy rain, Naruto began to feel very hot. In the few seconds it took to process this Jiraiya had already grabbed him by the clothing on his back and body flickered away.

"So now they're not scared to fight at all huh, this is tricky" Jiraiya grumbled to himself, crouched down in a clearing at the edge of the city, already going through the hand seals for his summoning jutsu.

Everything was happening too fast for Naruto to fully comprehend, he was just about to drink some tea and now his sensei looked like he was going to fight off the death god himself.

Naruto clenched his fists, hard, and mentally shut out the feeling and sound of the rain which had begun to come down at an unnaturally hard rate. He reached for the feeling of his chakra, exhaled completely, and just like Jiraiya had taught him, took in one long sharp breath. Naruto attempted a second breath when his eyes snapped open.

With sudden pinpoint clarity Naruto spun on his heel as fast as he possibly could, a clone already in existence forming his growing rasengan. He turned trying to use his momentum in his hips and stared directly into a never-ending kaleidoscope of red. As Naruto's wrist was caught he was able to hear two things, "Naruto!", and "Tsukuyomi", before everything was swallowed by blackness.

* * *

Inhale, exhale. Left foot, right foot.

Running, that was what one could find this young boy doing, just running. He had a jacket, but the water weighed him down, slowing him, so that was shed in turn for speed. The boy snapped back to his purpose, to run.

Inhale, exhale. Left foot, right foot.

* * *

The sun had set, risen, and set again before he slowed down. Now that he had started to slow, everything screeched to an absolute stop. His body collapsed being exhausted, tired, and thirsty, but his mind was wide awake if not foggy. After two days he has stopped running, but something was bothering him in the back of his head, oh that's it, why in the fuck was he running?

He didn't know. Not the clearest idea to why running the way he did was such an all-consuming task. So what did he know? Well to start, absolutely nothing.

' _Maybe not nothing'_ he admitted to himself. To start he knew he was just running, he was tired, hungry, and thirsty. ' _Four things, hey not bad.'_

He drifted off for a bit, thinking on why he was here, what it was exactly he needed to do, and in fact, just who in the hell was he?

He sat there and frowned, thinking hard on his own consciousness. ' _Well, I'm me, that's all I really know'._ As the boy focused inward on his own identity, he sat for a long while before with a flash of a red pinwheel he came to two definite conclusions. First, he was an orphan, that thought came with the weight of absolute certainty, along with an incredible sense of loneliness, just like how he was all alone now. Secondly, was that he needed to train. No idea what for, or even how, but there was a pressing sense of urgency to train, as hard and fast as possible.

He stood up, brushing himself off before looking around him, mentally marking the numerous trees and plants before he found what he was looking for, water. He approached the small bank, littered with plants though it looked completely pure. As he dropped to his knees on the grass and dipped his face to take a drink, several vines lashed out of the nearest plant onto his arm. He traced the vines back to a glistening flower mass bigger than him, and was startled, wrapping his hands around the vines and yanking them.

' _Huh, guess I'm kinda strong'_ he looked down at the limp vines in his hand, now connected to a completely uprooted flower organism that he had thrown upwards twenty feet.

' _Well I'm fairly confident that the whole training thing involves getting even stronger'_ he dryly thought to himself as the plant landed in front of him, he cocked his head to the side gazing deeply at the beautiful array of colors inside of the plant's center. Curiously, he dapped his finger on the wet parts which were alarmingly sticky. As he attempted to wipe the substance off on his pants they started to dissolve and he felt the beginnings of a sharp pain looking down at his eroded flesh coated with the corrosive poison. "Shit! Ah ouch f-

With a loud puff of smoke the chakra construct disappeared, leaving only spiritual energy residue and a giant, uprooted vine monster as the only evidence it ever existed.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 1. The Strange Forest: Stay Awake

At the bottom of the rain forest floor, the last light of the day passed the upper levels of branches and leaves, illuminating a blonde boy curled up on his side. As the light hit his eyelids he began to slowly wake, twitching his body, before opening one eye and muttering a single syllable, "huh?'.

It took a second later before he struggled to a standing position, barely achieving a slouch supported by a close tree trunk. He let out a groan, instinctively closing his eyes as memories came rushing back to him, of a frantic run, of self discoveries entailing being an orphan and training his body, and of a strange plant that only killed him through cheating in his opinion.

' _Wait...what?'_

His temporary spot on the tree was left behind as he surged his body forward, searching for water.

' _Think while you walk, I remember waking up with no memories right? But now how do I remember not remembering anything?_ _And I literally died, so how am I still here? It's like I already went through all this before'._

He cut himself off after he spotted a fuzzy low-hanging fruit on a nearby branch. Rushing towards it, he quickly plucked it off and sunk his teeth into its skin, sucking out all of its juice leaving a dried husk behind. After repeating this sequence several times including actually eating one of the juicy fruits, he stood straight, his headache clearing, and took a deep breath.

"So." he began aloud, attempting to gather his wild thoughts. "So so so. Just a lonely orphan with no name, in a strange forest while I need to train." He paused to stretch, watching his own shaky limbs touch the next closest fruit. "Yeah, that about sums it up" he declared, popping the p.

Tiredly smacking his lips he scanned his surroundings, randomly stopping on different vines or tree trunks before moving on. The dim brightness of when he woke was rapidly fading, and it wasn't long before the farther away fruits became unidentifiable.

He stood in the darkness for some time silently debating what to do, before he was startled by a noise.

The sound of silence. Earlier there was hundreds of little noises, filling in the natural environment, but now, there was nothing. No bird, no insect, not even wind, just an absolute, deafening, lack of sound.

His own danger senses were flaring up, his heart beat had quickened and he could feel his pulse in his throat and ears, filling the void of silence.

The light around him had faded from a soft, settling darkness into a suffocating cloud of black nothingness, he couldn't see his own hand in front of his face.

Eventually the noises around him began to pick up, at first he could only hear the gentle pull of his own muffled breathing, but now he could detect the faint creaks of claws resting their weight on branches, and the frantic sound of something inhaling around him.

The boy silently took one, then two steps backward, opening his eyes wide as possible in a vain attempt for vision. On the third step he heard the sound get too close too late, and felt the rush of being slammed into the ground, his breathed pushed out of him in the same motion.

He heard a deep growl in the chest of whatever was on him, the creature breathing even faster now and louder than ever.

The boy was panicked and still unable to breathe, his arms were being pinned down with great force, claws digging into his wrists drawing blood, while his legs were trapped underneath the weight of the being.

As soon as he was pinned to the forest floor, he felt a vicious set of teeth tear into his shoulder and side, leaving saliva behind that burned his flesh with every bite, over and over again his skin and blood were torn away with a hunger not human.

As the boy cried out into the darkness, he thought in the back of his mind how long it would take to be eaten alive.

The open wounds all over his body pushed the heat of his own blood rushing through him, and he went into a frenzied state of 'do whatever possible to not die'. He flexed his arms, struggling against the clawed grip that held him, his veins popping out, to no avail.

His breathing grew more and more labored as nothing worked to over power the body that controlled the set of teeth currently feasting on his side, before he snapped his neck forward and sunk his own canines into the side of a hair-covered neck.

The boy refused to let go of his bite and clenched down harder than he ever thought possible, summoning a yelp of a pain and freeing his right arm as the thing prepared to counter his bite, but the boy knew he absolutely could _not_ let that happen.

As soon as his fingers were available he reached to above his bite spot and prodded its face until he felt a dip leading to a opening, and hoping it was the thing's eye he rammed his nails into the side, tearing the organ out while flinging blood on its face.

The animals blood that he drew was glowing though, as an electric blue color, illuminating everything for the first time the boy saw the outline the creatures face and he frantically took both his hands, both arms now free, and started taking chunks back in earnest out of its face, nails first.

He was moving his body hard, and in fast jerks, as he worked to further injure the predator, while turning his body back and forth with all of his weight, hoping to leverage himself better.

After a few more swipes, the boy yelling the entire time, the humanoid monster came to a stop, its face completely torn open into an unrecognizable mess, the glowing blood casting an eerie illumination over the rest of the grotesquely muscled body.

The boy stopped to cough up blood, his nails were glowing due to the bits of flesh and blood underneath them as he tried to hold his side, in a futile attempt to stem the blood leaking from the poisoned bites.

He groaned and sat up close to the dead body of what looked like a kid's nightmare version of a gorilla.

Looking around using the blood as a temporary relief from the dark, he felt his heart sink into his stomach, as he was able to slowly identify the outlines of more creatures surrounding him on the branches, knowing there were even more from the sounds that were now coming back to him from beyond his precious light source.

Without a second thought he took off into the closest group of plants, tripping every other step.

Within seconds of running off he was hit by a jarring limb, losing his breathe for the second time already and rolling into darkness. Desperate to not be pinned again he got to his feet and threw his fist fast, and hard, because he knew that these monsters would come even faster, even harder, and wouldn't give him any quarter.

In the luckiest thing that had happened to him so far his fist actually connected with a wet nose, spraying his arm, and the gorilla's head, with blood, but more importantly with light.

As the boy drew his fist back, his senses sharpened, the outlines became more vivid and his body weight shifted to his plant foot as his stance changed.

His left fist flew out making contact again with its face, before he spun into his own momentum and lashed out with his elbow hard, crunching into something and increasing the light level further.

He rapidly went through six more blows, and even threw a spin kick in for the hell of it, before the bruised target stumbled back on the verge of collapse. The few that swiftly filled in past the one he had beat back swarmed around him, and his side was starting to remind him that he had just been an entree of one of these things a few moments ago.

The boy contorted his body to the side as smoothly as he could, evading a nasty claw-filled swing, before another set of monstrous appendages above him brought him down.

A singular, long, jointed limb snatched him up from his ankle and sent him rolling further into what was once again, a dark forest.

He tucked himself underneath his uninjured shoulder coming out of his tumble into a more controlled roll. Knowing that the beasts were immediately going to be upon him, he surged forward, his fingers formed a superstitious 'T', and he crashed his hand outward with an anguished yell, his hand drilling a glowing ball of energy into the chest of the rushing monster, completely caving in its body cavity and filling the area with more dim light.

The boy had his head down, his limp hair covering his face, heavily favoring his uninjured side.

The clearing was illuminated with a brighter glow coming off another slowly forming orb of energy in his hand, as his head raised and lazily locked eyes with the closest enemy.

* * *

' _That was certainly strange.'_

The carcasses of a mutated animal pack lay around him in varied states of destruction. The surroundings were now entirely filled with the dim light, as well as the gradually worsening smell that came with death.

' _Good news is my body seems to remember what the fuck I need training for even though my mind doesn't. Too bad the memory came a little late'_ he idly thought, his focus now entirely shifted to the gaping hole along his ribs, blood pooling around where he rest.

He slowly tore his shirt down the middle and awkwardly looped it as a sash pressed against right side and shoulder as tight as he could. ' _Well that just has to completely heal with zero infection now. Fuck even thinking hurts.'_

Shifting movement caught his attention as he lifted his head to see a blond boy, with his untorn shirt, but without his injuries. The standing boy looked down at him, before raising one eyebrow along with a hand, "yo".

' _That's right, I created it when I made that energy thing'_

With a pause, the boy once again crossed his fingers, and with a barely visible cloud came another version of him yet again uninjured, but this time without a shirt as well.

As the two creations traded informal handshakes with greetings and small talk, the creator coughed up more blood drawing their attention. "Fuck...what do we do" the unclothed one said, exasperated when he was elbowed by the other.

"Hey! I'm serious, are we supposed to move him or…"

"Don't know. Obviously. I think we're fucked."

' _Wow this clone creation is super useful'_ the original thought sourly.

Looking to the blonde on his right he managed to rasp "go pick more fruit" then proceeded to roll over and start a coughing fit. The remaining clone took off his shirt and began to tie around the original bandage in an attempt to further stem any bleeding.

"Y'know, this probably explains those memories we have, the weird ones I mean, from when we woke up the first time remember?" the clone said cheerily, patting his good shoulder. The construct looked around the clearing before resting its hands on its hips, "Huh, do you think we could eat these monstrous fuckers?" the clone asked, throwing one thumb to an illuminated body.

"If they're even edible that is what with all the glowing shit, plus we'd have to make a fire…"

The rest of the rambling cut off as the original body's eyes started to shut, his breath slowing.

His head lolled to the side to see a clone dragging one of the animals by its ankle into the direction of the fruit, before he passed out.

* * *

The first thing he felt was his body being moved down, before resting on a solid surface.

Then the voices filled in slowly as he opened his eyelids and saw the two clones talking to each other.

"What I mean is how much longer can we do this? Do we have a time limit, or does him slowly fucking dying matter?"

"Look we can't just set up somewhere and wait, that's just as bad as killing him right now. We _need_ to keep moving there's gotta be - oh look! He's awake!"

The creator looked at the clone accusingly, trying to muster the energy to speak. "Mmfruit" he managed to drawl out.

"Oh! Right where did I- okay, here you go, easy now" one said, coaxing his body up to eat.

"Man am I glad to see you wake up, honestly thought you wouldn't!" the other declared, laughing nervously.

"After you passed out, we didn't really know what to do. Just waited around in the pitch blackness with massacred gorilla-monster-nightmare hybrids for company. Well, and ourselves I guess, or I mean myself, right? No wait-"

"But then sweet day light came and we made this really useful stretcher out of vines and stuff!" the clone interrupted proudly.

"Right, right, then we started following these really big tree roots, I mean _really_ big, during the day"

"But those nights are scary" he shivered, "we've been hiding beneath trees with vines and leafs to cover us, but man we've had some close calls."

The original paused from eating, "how long have I been out?".

"Let's see, should be day three right now but hey- fuck!"

The fruit pit fell from the original's hand as he lost consciousness.

* * *

Early morning had passed, and the sunlight gradually filtered through the overhead canopy onto the forest floor. As the day went on, light eventually hit an undegrove covered with massive leaves, and the boys eyes snapped open.

He woke up gasping for air, instantly flaring his side with pain, before frantically looking around.

' _How long have I been out, the clones are gone'_ he thought in a haze, dizzy and dehydrated.

Slowly he sat up with foliage falling off of him, along with several bruised, rotting fruits, which he gratefully ate anyway, the juice temporarily relieving his chapped lips.

' _I'm even worse than last time fuck, I might pass out again at any second because honestly I should of fucking died already'_

The more he thought about his situation the more he panicked, before he forcefully made himself breathe, and think. Several minutes passes, and with each one he felt himself become more nausea's, slowly losing his awareness. Eventually he reached for the energy he felt inside him, crossed his fingers, and pushed his chakra out imagining a clone.

A cloud of smoke was created, revealing identical shirtless versions of himself, all looking at their creator who had just blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

Part 1 Strange Forest: Potential of Memories

From the blissful grasp of unconsciousness the boy awoke, his senses almost muted, except for the feeling of cool water running over his body and his eaten-through, infected side.

His breathing picked up in pace, filled with pain now, as his eyes opened to see several sets of hands holding him at a half-submerged level in the water.

Everything was so blurry, the sounds that came to him muddled. The volume around him increased slowly before he was able to hear excited shouting from around him.

"Hey! Guys he's awake!"

"Seriously!? Fuck uh, help him out of the water!"

"Someone go get those bush fruits!"

The words all blurred together until he was hauled onto a grassy bank with small vein-like roots spreading into the water.

"Yo, you think you can talk?"

"Let him take his time, he shouldn't even be awake"

After several more deep breathes he looked up at his surrounded clones and asked "What...happened?"

A heavy sigh answered him, "What didn't happen am I right guys?"

"Things just kept getting stranger man, uhhh I guess the last thing you probably remember was making all the original clones"

This intrigued the boy, "Wait, original?"

One of the clones wearily answered, "You've been out for a while, a lot longer than the last time. Those clones you made got as far as they could before they just started popping, not to mention all the ones lost to the jungle." he finished darkly.

"The five of us" another clone explained gesturing around him, "Plus the one that went to go get you some fruit, is all that's left."

"Yeah but here's the kicker, we're not even the originals. The clones actually cloned themselves as the days went on, all of us are actually gen-sixers"

"Anyway the mission was to just keep walking those roots, you missed them but there's huge ass roots in the ground leading somewhere and the size increases the longer we followed them. About a month later we hit this spring."

At this point the boy sat up to glance at the spring, it was shallow at the bank but expanded into an absolutely massive lake all around him. The water was so clean he could see to the bottom even at his angle, the water glistened and even looked _crisp._

"We found this just a few days ago, and we've been bathing you in it ever since, not to mention giving you water."

"And you actually started to get better! Your side's been slowly closing up and you used to be really sick, but then again you _definitely_ should be dead."

The somber note was missed by the boy, who was consumed with memories of his earlier clones.

He remembered the body-numbing panic and anxiousness of watching himself slowly die on the ground, of making the desperate journey along the roots stalling the inevitable.

Memories of dark creatures filled his head, of the mutilated panther stalking them through the night, of a thousand clicking legs following them, of being massacred in the day by hateful insects. Even the very plants that hid them were capable of deadly violence.

He vividly recalled the never-ending rain that tore into them, the air so sticky and humid that breathing became a struggle, while their hands and feet stayed constantly pruned.

More than a years worth of memories assaulted him, the sad days when another clone was lost until one decided that killing the creator was better than the existence they experienced. Thankfully, that clone was stopped before he got to far.

The boy glanced at the remaining clones with pity, "Good job guys" he said softly, before instinctively flexing two fingers and dispelling them.

With a deep sigh, he looked over the lake, appreciating the simple fact that despite all odds he was still alive in this strange jungle. He had just woken up for one of the few times in this past month, and yet he felt so very tired, the mental toll of the journey's memories made him feel oddly old.

As he gazed out on the water he had to squint his eyes when he has trouble distinguishing a tree line in the distance.

' _Wait...that's not a tree line, that's one fucking tree'_

With this revelation his eyes widened considerably, taking in the _presence_ of the massive tree trunk expanding into the sky.

The boy didn't remember what kind of life he had before he woke up here, but something told him that never would he see a tree of this size, or anything of this size for that matter.

' _Wow. Just..wow. I wonder how high it actually goes. Ohhh_ those _are the roots.'_

The tree was so far across the lake that it looked blurry, but now that he knew it was a tree he could see that the 'trunk' was a tsunami of gargantuan tree roots, crashing together upwards.

He sat there for hours enjoying the uncovered sun warming his skin, the rare clear weather, and a better view than he could've imagined.

The decision to stay near the tree was an easy one, especially with the water that apparently possessed healing properties available, and the idea of an open area that could possibly provide security was appealing as well.

' _Let's get started then, need to get some shelter set up and probably find out what's around me.'_

With a hand sign and as much energy as he could reach for, he once again summoned more clones into existence. Only this time the cloud that accompanied his energy constructs spread all around him, thick and covering his vision.

When the cloud cleared there was a countless amount of clones, all of them shifting around and looking at each other.

"Uhh, okay that works too. Listen up! I want-umm-forty to stay here! Everyone else spread out and explore!"

Noise spiked with excited acknowledgments before the swarm filtered out into the rain forest, anticipating even stranger discoveries.

The remaining clones followed the boy around the lake to the tree.

* * *

Several hours later and the group was still marching forward to the mass of roots which stubbornly stayed on the horizon.

The boy frequently stopped due to his still injured side, until he decided to stay put as the journey to the tree was clearly much further than he expected.

"Alright guys let's stay here for the night, hmm I want five of you to start bringing food back here, everyone else go get stuff to settle here, y'know big leaves, vines, the usual drill"

After the clones all left, one stayed back to talk to him looking contemplative. "Y'know I was thinking, and remember how it feels like you actually spent a year walking to this lake? Well I was doing some rough math and well, let's say that one clone stays alive for a full day right?

"I'm following you" he responded with a raised brow.

"Okay well you made a lot of us not to long ago, it wouldn't be overtly wild to even say a thousand clones. So a thousand clones giving you a thousand days worth of memories and experience in the span of one day, that's almost three years."

"Huh." he blandly answered, shocked at this revelation.

"And I mean you might not even have to worry about any kind of health effects because of the water, and well, since you should be dead anyway right now, but more importantly we could use it to train! Think about it, ten days for thirty years, one year for a thousand worth!"

The clone wandered off into the jungle for its task acting like he hadn't just enlightened his creator to some honestly eye opening information.

The boy was left to his thoughts, mostly centered around the memories he was getting back from the group he sent into the jungle, as he lay on his back gazing at all the stars.

* * *

 _Clone #63_

The half-clothed clone waded his way through the dense forest, he just split up with the rest of the copies and was now entering a rare area that lacked any trees, but possessed an ungodly amount of leaves on the ground.

After crunching over enough leaves to become seriously annoyed, the ground suddenly started shifting around him, leaves slowly being funneled _into_ the ground.

He cautiously took a step backwards, when the leaves underneath him collapsed, falling with him into a deep hole.

Groaning in pain, he threw leaves off and uncovered himself before looking around. ' _Are those tunnels, uh oh.'_

It was reasonably dark underground, but that didn't prevent him from seeing the body speeding towards him, or from hearing the hate-filled screech that suspiciously sounded like 'die'.

"Oh fuck no, fuck!"

The creature was already upon the pile, moving with an unexpected speed, but even more unexpected was the clone running _up_ straight out of the hole, a string of curses following him.

He leaped out from the whole before his own surprise registered, when he began laughing in glee. "No way, are you telling me this whole time we could've been climbing trees?"

He had to follow his own question almost immediately as a grotesque set of claws griped the edge of the pit trap, before hauling a more disgusting mole-like creature up to kill its prey.

Running up trees was useful in establishing high ground away from any dangerous creatures like the type that would dwell underneath the earth, unfortunately the animal had no qualms over heights and proceeded to sink its jagged teeth into an almost tangible cloud of smoke.

* * *

 _Clones 121 & 407_

Standing back to back, the two clones nervously watched the approaching group of primates, furiously screeching as they tripped over themselves in an effort to avenge their troop.

When the clones split up, 121 went off with 407 for 'twice the looking power', but mostly to have someone to talk to instead of going off solo into the strange jungle.

They had a fairly fun few hours jogging through the rain forest, idly noting viewpoints and interesting plants, until they ran into an opening cleared of the usual dense foliage. When the humanoid creatures dropped down they were able to briefly see the bright, angry red color of their fur, and their monstrous, bulging arms that extended an unnatural length similar to their canines. Then the only colors were red fur and blood, contrasting to the bright blue energy the clones were using to quickly slaughter the closest ones.

The animals were relentless however and poured down upon the clones who were nearly drained of their allotted energy. They were forced back into the thick plants quickly, and now stood ready for the inevitable assault.

As the creatures swarmed to the opening into the jungle plants, they crashed into each other coming to a stop dangerously close to the clones, pounding their fists into the ground and chests, some aggravatingly tearing out the very skin on their face.

The clones cautiously held their breath as they continued to hold their ground.

"What are they waiting for?"

"Dunno, it almost looks like their scared"

"Really? They look more filled with rage and hate to me."

As they slowly backed away, they plant underneath them shifted slightly, before instantaneously shooting upwards and swallowing them whole.

* * *

 _Clone 299_

Like the other clones, he was trekking his way through the strange jungle, always keep a watchful eye out for any would-be predators.

When the leaves rustled to the side of him he was ready for whatever came out, and yet was still surprised when a turtle twice his size came strolling out and _smiled_ at him. In the strangest rain forest where it rained relentlessly and sheltered ferocious creatures with a thirst for blood, a friendly turtle found him.

He leaned down to the head level of the turtle, "uhh hey buddy" he tentatively rolled out, idly petting the head of the turtle.

' _Well this is a little strange'_

He shrugged and kept walking forward, the turtle following him all the way.

Several hours later the pair reached a small water hole near several trees, where a monstrous snake crushed them both with ridiculous ease.

* * *

 _Clone_ _637_

From the instant the he was told to go explore, he had been running, hard. This forest was so big that the only thing valuable, like a different type of biome other than this, would be quite a distance away, and of all the clones he was determined to be the one to find something so important.

Hours into his run he began to idly circulate the energy in his body, spreading it through his stomach, to his chest, and then into his legs.

To his complete surprise his speed at least tripled, rocketing him through the trees until he skidded to a stop.

' _Strange, my speed increased by that much with energy when I was only lazily throwing it around."_

For the next hour he tore through the jungle at a ludicrous pace, growing faster with each bound, at least until he slammed head on into a tree instantly dispelling.

* * *

 _Clone 942_

Awe. The only word that was appropriate for clone 942's situation was awe. Standing before him was an elephant that stood at least fifty feet tall, when it spotted him it lowered its head to lock eyes with the clone, who took notice of its glowing pupils filled with colors and beautiful patterns extending from the face down the trunk.

For a life-stopping ten seconds the clone stared deep into the eyes of knowledge he could never dream of, before the massive elephant raised its head and walked away from view into the trees, never making a sound.

After that he sat down staring into the distance for a long while, and once the day turned to night he decided to dispel himself to share his experience.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 1 Strange Forest: Just Another Day

Time was getting tedious to keep track of. Sure he could clearly identify whether it was day or night time, but he had thousands of memories containing the sun and moon thanks to his clones.

' _Hell, the only reason I even have a general grasp is because of how many times I've created more of em.'_

His perception on time probably wasn't accurate at all, but if he had to guess, the most confident answer would be one month.

An entire month - he hoped - of living under the great roots that easily sheltered him with their mass. A month of sleeping under the stars, of pouring rains, of precious and strange discoveries, of finding valuable food, of begrudgingly sharing the lake with any thirsty animals.

But he had _years_ of training.

' _How many years actually? Let me see, about thirty days..three years a day..umm ninety years!? Damn I'm feeling old'_

He didn't forget, couldn't forget, about one of the only sure things that he knew, that he simply must train. Just as he must breathe, as he must eat, drink, and sleep, he needs to train himself.

The most intriguing part of this to him was not on why he felt this addicting desire inside of him, but on what he needed the training for. Of course with the bloodthirsty creatures residing in the jungle still regularly obliterating his clones for zero fucking reason he had enough of a motivation to get stronger.

For essentially guessing how to begin to train himself he thought he did fairly good, disregarding the actual time transfer. Almost everything he learned had been by accident, so bumping up the odds of it happening by a thousand worked fine with him.

He had a basic idea on what he started out with before he began to advance, all of it based on the energy he felt inside of his body, like the energy balls, or the speed boosts, the foot sticking, and especially the clones he produced.

The strangest skill he possessed right now however was something that he learned over the time spent progressing.

One of the clones had been out on the lake spreading his energy out and it had been raining hard like it usually was. That's when the annoyed clone _willed_ the water away with a combination of mental force and energy use while the rain was in constant contact with him.

After that stunt the boy had to internalize the fact that he could actively manipulate a natural element, before he started to use it to his advantage.

The logistics of his intriguing rain abilities were still quite hazy to him, but with an overwhelming amount of trial and error he could now easily stay dry in the middle of the customary monsoons. He even had a small affinity for using the largest water source available to him, through raising water spouts on the lake and isolating waves before changing their direction.

Although his skills with the water may not be clean enough to rely on against some of the nastier jungle animals, like the toad hybrids who seemed to be the most insistent to reach him of all the species the rainforest hosted so far, with the years he had at his disposal he was sure it could be deadly.

Fortunately he didn't have to wait so long to be formidable, in fact he felt quite dangerous when compared to what he started from. The ball of energy, that he regularly was forced to pull out of his ass when whatever giant ant hill in the vicinity decided to raid him, was his best option for offense. So naturally he honed his strange ability until he could nearly instantaneously form them in either hand he chose, even both, and he now had the control to increase the size by a ludicrous amount, to the point it dwarfed the boy himself.

His energy-enhanced speed had improved so much that when he was forced to move by the monsters that resided in the shallow swaps it almost seemed as if he could teleport.

Another skill he picked up thanks to his clones wasn't very battle applicable, but it helped him to a great degree. With the repeated stress of memories building up he took to meditating, assisting the process of reinforcing information and his sensing abilities.

Yes, sensing. After his own energy became second-nature to circulate and flex, he began to notice other signatures of energy all around him. The skill started out with small rodents and roots from the great tree, but he could now expand to hundreds of feet around him when in a state of meditation.

In the strange forest the boy began to make sense of his life, just a series of routines involving training and meditation.

But he quickly had to swallow his contentedness with the normal after he entered a state of deep meditation.

* * *

He had been sitting under the center of the gigantic tree roots in his favorite spot to collect his thoughts, meditating as usual, when he began to experience a subtle sinking feeling. Not in a physical manner, but his consciousness was submerging at a rapid rate.

Soon after he felt himself reach a 'bottom', his sense of alertness distorted, and he found himself in control of his body once more, except it was now dark.

Not only was it dark, but he was standing in shin level water enclosed by massive walls, with equally huge bars in front of him.

Taking a moment to mentally collect himself and expand his senses, the energy source that rebounded from behind the bars caused him to stagger, as the sheer amount was greater than that of the giant tree and its nature thousands of times more viscous than the darkest of creatures he had encountered so far.

He waited with bated breath, anticipating a reaction from the energy, but received nothing.

After a long while he cautiously approached the bars, and what awaited him shocked him far more than when he had expanded his senses. Covering the space behind the bars was the massive form of a fox, with multiple tails spread out behind it.

The boy eyed the creature with shock for another long pause, but the fox slumbered away.

"Hello?" he murmured in small voice before clearing his voice.

"Uhh, hello!?" he yelled at a respectable volume, receiving no sign of the fox stirring.

The boy stared down the creature, at a loss for what to do, before he squited suddenly, spotting something out of place even on a colossal fox made of energy. There, sitting in the middle of its head, rested a lone crow.

"...huh."

More time passed in what felt like an awkward silence fed by the strange circumstances, before he began to think of escaping the room. Only seconds after he sat to meditate, he was back in the rainforest, under the roots of the great tree.

* * *

He still didn't quite know what to make of that event.

Of all the new things he had experienced over the month the sleeping fox and crow were without a doubt the strangest, but another peculiar event was when one of his energy-speed clones out training had reached an area that didn't match the surrounding rainforest. The only way to describe it was as a dark jungle, the plants typically filled with life were black and wilted, and the air felt dry which was a startling shift from the humid conditions he was used to.

The clone had been destroyed mere seconds after the discovery, by a pack of wolf like predators.

So now, on a rare day of not training, the boy himself was setting out to explore this new section of the jungle, his durability and greater energy source would allow him to - hopefully - survive the onslaught of creatures this new area sure to provided.

His personal capabilities we easily superior to that of a clone, and the clones he made we pretty damn fast.

So with a quick touch to the toes and a sharp nose exhale he flickered into the jungle.

* * *

Within the hour the boy had begun to encroach on the dark jungle, there were no visible indicators yet but he had begun to sense the maliciousness as he neared.

With the speed that he moved at there were no forced hostile encounters, although he had been dangerously close to a couple of beetles, so he was still weary of combat as he closed the distance to the dark area.

And there it was. The vibrant greens of the jungle gradually warped into a short section of neutral grey, before it wilted to ash and black decay.

Other than the color schemes another indicator of difference was the slow-floating particles that hung in the air, he didn't want to guess what they were.

He waded into the forest of shadows with a great amount of caution. He took care to open his senses around him, and though he felt a steady wave of corrupted energy ready to kill around him, he couldn't tell if something was stalking him or if the dark jungle itself was just that bad.

That's when he picked up another strong energy source, this one void of the dark-tinted energy, coming from behind him towards the rainforest.

The boy paused, cocking his head, as he thought he heard shouting.

Several moments later and he could clearly make out the repeated words "wait".

He carefully back tracked in the direction of this noise until a creature lethargically waded through the plants and they locked eyes.

A giant turtle, around thirty feet wide, was out of breathe. And it had a beard.

"There-" the turtle paused took gracious amounts of air "you are."

The boy did not verbally answer, nor physically move, he simply remained lookin at the talking turtle with wide eyes.

"Boy I've been looking for you for too long. And here you are venturin' into the tainted like ya can't see the ash in the air." it grumbled.

"Do you even-"

The turtle and the boy broke the one sided conversation as a strange clicking noise filled the air. He was unfortunately familiar with the sound, thanks to the centipede that followed them through the night during his journey to the lake.

From behind a thick web of blackened vines a dark creature sped forth.

All of the predators he had encountered so far had been warped in some fashion, bigger, more dangerous than an unaltered form.

This new monster only gave him seconds to view it, but it too was a hybrid-like breed formed with the intent to slaughter, only to a higher degree.

His centipede encounter allowed him some intuition of the ungodly amount of legs, and that's where his understanding stopped.

Even bigger than the bearded turtle was a three-sectioned body, similar to a spider, lifted off the ground by an uncountable amount of thick, clawed legs like that of a tiger, but folded in on each other by unnatural joints. The head made his heart stop for a solid second. There was a surplus of beady eyes as expected, but it was the hanging jaw filled with rows of teeth extending out of the mouth that made him realize this animal knew nothing but the want of death.

"Move!" With speed that comically paralleled the rate of movement shown before, the turtle heavily stepped in front of the boy and snapped its beak marginally close to the things head.

The monster seemed to flow over the bite, before the gruesome appendages grabbed hold of the turtles underbelly with its claws, and heaved the turtle onto its shell.

Not even a second later the predator was noisily feasting on the deceased turtles neck, its legs dragging it back in the darkness while it was eating.

The boy still hadn't moved from his spot. First a giant, beared, talking turtles had 'found him', then an even bigger beast of nightmares had 'found' the turtle.

"...Fuck! That seemed like it was gonna be really important."

He sighed heavily and threw his hands into the air

"Welp, guess I need to go find another talking fucking turtle to get some answers right?" He asked no one, subconsciously coping with the appearance of the monster that was sure to plague his dreams.

"Why do things always have to keep getting stranger? I mean should I even go into this 'tainted' jungle even more?"

The image of the creature destroying the turtle's throat answered that for him. "Nope."

Time to head home.

* * *

He felt robbed. The entire purpose of the trip was to get some answers, and instead he left with more questions.

He was determined to not let the day get the best of him however, and there was one more thing he could explore before the night came, the great tree.

For the past month he had stayed under the roots which had enough space to build a large city under, but he had never been up the tree past the surrounding canopy.

With a single-minded purpose his right foot broke past the plants onto the open field surrounding the lake. His next step and he was in the middle of the lake, water spraying from his path. Twice more he shot forward until he transitioned vertically to begin running the roots upwards.

As he neared the thick surrounding branches and leaves covering the roots, he formed multiple energy balls of varied sizes, breaking out onto the top of the canopy.

He had climbed tree tops before, but at the moment he was at the tallest point in the jungle besides the tree itself. Looking out as far as his eyes could see, he circulating energy to his eyes with this thought, was unsurprisingly more forest. Tree tops of green swallowed each other for sunlight everywhere he looked until they faded into the distant horizon.

The roots he had run on past the canopy had transformed into tree bark and he took a second to look above him at the tree shooting into the sky well past the canopy. Further upwards the tree began to branch out, each individual leave seemed to be a similar height to the forest floor trees, until an umbrella-like dome engulfed the forest below, like it was mimicking the form of a mushroom.

The boy shot up the great tree for a while longer, reaching a significant amount of height from the ground, when he flickered past something strange.

With scrunched eyebrows he slid back down until he reached a spot, in what he guessed was the middle of the tree, that was hollowed out.

On four sides there was ancient wood that supported the tree top, flowing from the rest of the bark, but he was able to see all sides of the rainforest from the missing tree walls. The space was small compared to the actual girth of the tree, but it seemed _sacred_.

In the middle of the tree hollow was an uncountable amount of rings, some faded against time, some bold with life. Greens and browns swirled into the center where the boy was now sitting. This was just one of the many strange things he had half-expected to find scaling the great tree.

He closed his eyes to meditate, letting the soft breeze brush his face, his ears filled with sounds of the forest and nose with the scent of rain.

Time was a commodity. He would continue to train, continue to grow, and continue to live in the jungle where things only got stranger.


	5. Chapter 5

Part 1. The Strange Forest: Rookie to Veteran

He was not the same boy he once was.

Roughly a year in the jungle had changed him physically, his hair reached his shoulders and skin had tanned.

Roughly a thousand years experienced in the jungle had completely transformed him, his patience and understanding grew with each clone, as did his skill.

The boy had no want for sleep as he spent the days in a deep meditative state, so he was able to currently witness the sun breaching over the treetops while he was sitting in the great tree.

He couldn't imagine life without the energy he used and sensed everyday, his awareness was able to cover miles around him from the tree.

He felt all the little life forms starting their day, spiders weaving their webs while moles set their traps, and he felt the natural energy from every single leaf, tree, and plant.

As he let the warm colors of the sunrise wash over the rainforest, he increased his senses, stretching out across the jungle taking in unfathomable amounts of energy sources. Letting the nature energy surround and calm him, the boy's skin hardened, his own energy spiked with power, and as he opened his eyes they were a glowing green with streaks pooling down into his cheeks.

* * *

The discovery of his empowerment through the nature energy surrounding him came several weeks earlier, and he was elated to find that his 'nature mode' vastly increased his already lethal abilities.

The jungle was full of live targets designed to kill, and yet they were of no use to the boy anymore as they provided no challenge forcing him to continue his training in the area surrounding the great tree.

He could only distantly recall the days when he was able to shift the rain away from him, now it only rain when he chose it, able to casually manipulate the clouds above him.

Moving water freely at will was child's play, he could wield the entire lake as a weapon if he so decided. Changing the pressure of the water, the speed, the temperature, all of these feats he had become more than capable of performing.

He was even able to grasp at the water inside the vines of the jungle, a trick his clones had used many times to their advantage.

His balls of energy had increased with so much power that far to the west lay a completely destroyed section on the jungle spanning miles, a testament to the strength of his energy.

Completely changing the form of his energy was second nature to him, he could even cut his own source off and fire the energy as a ranged attack, or focus it down into a beam of death.

Repetitive usage of energy reinforcing his body, boosting his speed and strength, allowed to him to throw around the rhinos of the mist covered jungle slopes, and out maneuver the predatory birds that dwelled in the higher levels.

He had become so undeniably powerful that he couldn't grasp how he could possibly grow any stronger, and then he started using the nature mode.

The mass destruction he could call upon was startling, and he still had not gone at his maximum capabilities, afraid of what permanent harm he may do to what was now his home.

He hadn't forgotten his motivations, he lived by it, training himself everyday until he had reached his potential.

With a frown he closed his eyes, shielding his sight from the bright sun until he willed a cloud to cover the glare.

' _Now what? I have sat among the great tree, I've become a part of the very nature and my skill has grown past any threat of the rainforest. Am I to live here forever?'_

There had been so much to attend to in the early days that he had not thought of the future, but now his fate bothered him.

He could always use his speed to run as far as he could in any direction, but he half expected the jungle to continue on forever, it wouldn't be the strangest thing to happen to him.

With a deep exaggerated sigh he upped his intake of natural energy, enjoying the high it brought him. He eventually reached the balance he was used to, his own energy and that of natures equally split. A contemplative look flashed across his features before he actively took in even more nature energy, past what he had every held.

The natural energy increased even further until he became dizzy, his senses extended through the jungle to their full extent.

' _Just as I thought, even at the peak of my senses there is only more of the jungle'._

' _...hold that thought'_

The boy was squinting into the distance.

His eyes were almost closed as he couldn't tell if he was seeing things or not with his wishful thinking.

Focusing the latent energy stored throughout his body, he redirected almost all of it, his eyes dancing with green patterns, a strong glow emitting from his pupils.

' _There!'_

Off into the far, _far_ away distance, there were peaks reaching up, even higher than the great tree.

' _Are those..mountains?'_

* * *

Had he not gained control over his first reactions long ago, he'd already be on his way to the distant mountains.

But now that a new destination was provided, he was no longer so enthusiastic to leave the rainforest, the strange jungle, his home.

He spent the day and night in solitude, sitting high above in the great tree simply breathing in the essence of the nature.

' _I know I can't stay here forever, but logically it is a real possibility for me. The jungle is all I've ever known, hundreds of years have been lived here. But even though I'm somewhat comfortable, I wouldn't have anything to do, training more at this point would be pointless.'_

He ended his internal debate that kept him awake for the night with firm resolution.

The boy spent a precious few moments counting the stars, the numbers fading as the light became warm with color while the moon dimed.

It was when everything surrounding him merged from black to a visible dark blue that he laid one palm on the tree, pulsing his energy throughout it and the massive root system connected throughout the jungle, and then blurred forth, reappearing on top of the tree canopy before shooting off once more.

An hour later and he was rerouted from the direction of the mountains by the thought of the dark jungle. Over his time spent here he had become the top of the food chain, and felt somewhat responsible for the nature that was his home.

As he neared what he remembered as the area, he took several well placed leaps vastly out matching his earlier pace, before he squatted down, gathering natural energy in the same motion, and leapt up high above the forest, able to see the whole of the blackened jungle spread out before him.

As his momentum began to slow, and finally stall midair, he smoothly spun his body gathering concentrated energy in his hands and wrists. Still lazily spinning in the sky he gradually began to start a decent downward, before he harshly expelled a breathe and the building energy physically manifested between his combined wrists.

Within a single flash the energy shot down, its own momentum and gravity propelling it even faster with halo rings floating out at every pulsing transition down.

The force of the energy pushed the boy back up in the air until he gradually slowed once more, and the sound of everything, including the wind, became silent.

Then, everything exploded.

As the boy angellicelly floated down, everything was much too bright, it seemed to be a neon white.

With a single thought his nature empowered sight glowed brightly, as he gazed down into the massive crater.

For miles the hole ran wide, and extended down into a darkness that even his eyes could not see past.

As he plummeted down, various vines seemed to float in the air as they extended ludicrous distances away from their source of life to wrap themselves around the boy, catching him and slowly transferring him to the safety of the ground.

After touching the edge of the living forest looking over the crater, he was astonished by the size as he had created it.

Something blipped on his senses and he quickly filtered in more nature energy, easily spotting the behemoth pitch black vulture crying out, tucking its easily forty foot wingspan to dive the boy that had just destroyed its home.

He frowned as he watched the obviously grieving predator attempt to murder him, when he casually flicked his hand through the air, thousands of vines following the movement and engulfing the vulture, bringing it crashing to the ground in front of him.

As he began strolling forwards he idly thought to himself, ' _Man too bad all these monsters are crazy, It'd be cool to be able to just ride on one'._

Staring back into the birds left beady eye, his own glowing with natural energy as he thought of this, the vultures own eyes swirled with bright forest green before regressing into a singular green dot in the middle of its pupils.

The boy paused at this action and cocked his head viewing the completely calm bird of prey, the only sign of action was its still erratic breathing.

"No way…" he muttered under his breath.

The vines slowly unraveled themselves as the vulture remained still, its head bowed as if in submission. With great patience he walked a full circle around the gigantic creature, before reaching out to touch it with slightly extended fingers.

The instant he made contact his eyes flashed a full green, as did the vulture's, and the creature's feelings, instincts, and thoughts became known to the boy.

With the knowledge that he had completely controlled the monster, he hopped onto its feathered nape with a full grip, and willed the flying animal, which was probably the last remains of the dark jungle, to start the journey towards the mountains.

* * *

As he glided through the air on giant wings, it was easy to notice that the beast was injured from its earlier collision with the ground, though he didn't care as the jungle only followed one rule, survival of the fittest, and he had worked through blood and sweat to become the most fit.

This dark infestation on the animal kingdom could die from exhaustion for all he cared, and he knew that the vulture would do so willingly.

He was beginning to pass new areas of the forest as he traveled further away from the great tree, which he could still see rising up in the far distance.

There were new sections that were not strictly just large trees and plants, but always variations of the rainforest.

He had sluggishly manipulated energy to slay the various birds that attempted to attack them although the vulture was much bigger than any of them so far, but he had not expected the staggering amount of strange creatures he was currently witnessing on an open, tall grass plain, that stretched out surrounding a body of water.

Spanning over the entire surface of the open land beneath him, a massive war was taking place between mutated toads wielding swords and spitting water, clashing against the armored, earth moving turtles.

The fight was absolutely brutal, creatures took limbs being severed as a motivation to kill the other in the cruelest of ways possible, and the ground was caked with abnormal blood colors as well as mutilated carcasses.

"What in the fuck?"

The boy glanced down with severely scrunched brows at the battle, before glancing back at the mountain range now visible.

He repeated this cycle several times before shaking his head sharply, "No! No you good you don't need to - y'know what just ignore it. Why not right? I honestly do not care anymore" he finished resolutely, refusing to look at the full scale massacre any longer, crossing his arms and staring down the mountains.

As more time passed, they got closer to the mountain ranges, and as they got closer to the mountain ranges, he realized just how big they were. They didn't even _start_ until they were at the same level as the top of the great tree, the entire jungle looked like a bowl in between the mountains, a little pocket of forest.

He willed his ride to climb higher and higher, until finally he was in jumping distance of the snow spotted rocks that inclines sharply. The vulture hefted its heavy wings slower and slower, its entire chest heaving in vain for breathe as the boy forced it to take him further, until it collapsed dropping through the air.

The boy had already jumped at the apex, and clung to the mountain side through his energy.

In a familiar motion he created thousands of clones which all began their ascent over the closest peak, while the boy took one last long gaze over the strange jungle, before joining his clones conversation and starting his own climb.

* * *

 **Okay that's the end of the Strange Forest Arc.**

 **Some relatively fast development happened, but this is the most important character building stage as the opening.**

 **I'm actively trying to introduce new ideas to the story that only add world building/character building/ plot building, so I hope that I'm succeeding so far without being boring.**

 **So far we've seen young Naruto battle his way through any adversary, but the vulture's death is the first flash that he's able to be cruel.**

 **Question** **: Should I combine these past forest chapters into one big one since it's only like 2k words a chap. and just do that at the end of every arc?**

 **The Windy Mountains Arc is up next, but I've got a lot less to establish/introduce in that section so it'll probably span 2-3 chapters.**

 **Thank you for reading my story.**


	6. Chapter 6

Part 2. Stranger Mountains: Survival

Further, he just had to keep going further.

It had been weeks since he felt the warm jungle air, once he flickered over the first slope he didn't look back.

He had covered lots of ground in this time, using his clones and his own speed to venture forward, as well as utilizing the untapped natural energy around him.

The boy was forced to slow the speed which he had traveled at however, as he was quickly running out of energy.

Not the spiritual energy inside of him, or the natural energy surrounding him, but the metabolic energy his body needed to live.

Within the first few days scaling the mountain sides he was able to sense a goat, and after killing the animal with the snow that constantly drifted down, he was still hungry.

He had no way to cook the meat, no way to make a fire, not that he knew how to, so he continued to starve.

Melting the snow provided him with water, but the slow, ravenous hunger was getting to him mentally just as severely as physically.

His stomach was so empty that any time he moved, breathed, did anything that required his body action, it hurt.

For days his clones had been running the mountains, looking for anything edible, while he stayed seated in the snow.

It wasn't just the hunger that was the problem, the freezing temperature bit at his skin, sucking away the water in his lips, and chilling the air to the point breathing was undesirable.

The thin mountain air only furthered that problem.

Any many ways the mountains were more dangerous than the jungle, it was almost nostalgic how he was dangerously edging the line of death.

Sitting down shivering, he was going through an endless loop of establishing his problems and trying not to complain about them, without knowing he was doing it.

The snow and shivers that racked his body occupied him, passing time, until he sensed a pair of clones sliding down the slope to where he sat.

Carried in between them was the broken body of a ram, the wool only serving as a painful reminder he didn't have a shirt.

Two of the animal's limbs were broken, twisted and bent in multiple sections abnormally as it bleated in agony.

Out of breathe, one of the clones yelled down to him, "Hey! Get ready!"

Confused, the boy simply sat up straighter waiting for his clones to bring down the abused animal and question them.

Reaching the snow level of the boy the clones rolled the ram on its side, one cruelly holding down the head into the cold, exposing a set of nipples.

"C'mon, we caught this bitch getting milked by her kid" he muttered darkly before he nudged the other clone "help me roll it over"

His clones were not physically limited as he was by the lack of food, but they were getting more and more mentally unstable when he created him, and his encounters with the creatures of the strange jungle had desensitized him to harming other living things.

A cold, rubbery nipple was forced into his mouth, and as he added suction the most disgusting, yet satisfying type of milk filled his mouth with warmth.

He closed his eyes letting a deep sigh of content escape through his nose as he continued to feed on the rams milk.

The liquid gradually became colder with less coming forth at each mouthful, so he quickly manipulated the liquid he felt inside of the animal to gush forward with a boiling hotness until he sucked the ram dry.

That's when his eyes snapped open, when he tampered with the temperature of the liquid inside the ram he was enlightened with a new possibility.

Using his long nails and new burst of energy he tore into the underbelly, drawing a muted groan, and started pulling out blood coated chunks.

He effortlessly boiled the blood and began tearing his teeth into the meat, his hunger growing with each bite.

The clones wordlessly stood by with stern faces, watching their creator consume what was left of the animal.

* * *

He was slipping, and he knew that for a fact.

Boiling an animal for food? That was a day one technique, he even had used it before in the jungle.

He had the ability to switch icy snow to boiling water in a second, so why had he stayed so cold?

He had brief moments of clarity, before his thought process turned back into loops.

The mountains ended up being stranger than he had first thought.

He was slipping, and he knew that for a fact.

* * *

An endless cycle of gaining distance, devouring animals, and grooming himself had become the staple.

He had taken to running his nails through his long hair which he let hang past his shoulder, trailing the sharp edges over his cheeks, and without provocation tearing away at his own itchy skin.

He was simply another strange creature, running on instinct.

Then, he found the cave.

He didn't remember much of anything, he just knew that he was stumbling down the darkness of a cave found in the mountain side with long, awkward strides like he was failing to imitate a human.

Eventually the dark tunnel began to illuminate, and he walked into a small clearing of soft grass that tickled his calloused feet, with a pure pool of spring water, all under softly glowing crystals in the cave ceiling of blue and green colors.

He unintentionally took in the nature energy permeating the secret alcove in the depths of the mountain, his skin flushed and his eyes bounced from hollow blue to bright green.

His eyes widened on their own accord as he took in deep breathes as if he were previously drowning.

Looking around the beautiful temple of nature he continued to draw in more energy, picking up a very hidden source outside the cave radiating intent like he had never felt, that of a trickster, of a cruel predator toying with its prey.

He recalled the days past in the mountains, but with each one passed his memory became blurrier until it was one long stream of subconscious instinct, eating and moving.

Focusing further on the twisted energy seated a distance outside the cave mouth, he spun on his heel and walked back with resolute goal.

His steps turned to a heavy jog, then light footstep spring him forth, until he blurred out into the snow, several feet from the energy.

He squinted his eyes as he was sensing something that should be there, and yet all that appeared was snow.

When a pair of electric purple eyes revealed the massive, humanoid snow leopard, he was wholly unprepared and rocket back into the cave by a swing.

The boy was on his back when his facial features lit up with fury he had not felt in this life before.

He flickered into the open once more where the leopard stood, triple his size engulfed with muscle, and its mouth curled up as if it was smiling condescendingly at the boy, which was not the right thing to do at all.

The leopard's claws struck at his neck at a blinding speed, before they cracked on the boys durable skin.

The boy did not react further than simply reappearing with his arm through the middle of the creatures midsection, his finger tips glowing with miniature balls of energy.

That's when the leopards body dissolved in a swirl of purple smoke.

The disappearance was strange, alarmingly so, but he had kept the snow leopard in his senses the entire time and clenched his fist, hard.

Miles away, the snow that the leopard was running across rose up, contorting around its body and crushing it, leaving the once again unanimated snow white and red.

Almost immediately after the death his eyes shined even brighter, his thoughts cleared, and his body relaxed.

He wearily walked back to his secluded spot of grass, mentally commenting on the absurdness of his situation.

* * *

That's how his days upon the stranger mountains passed, climbing higher peaks, securing the nearest food, and just going through the motions until whatever strange event happened to befall him next.

Most recently, it was a beneficial event.

As the altitude grew higher the winds became stronger, to the point his clones were sometimes dead locked scaling it. That's when one of the desperate clones slashed his energy focused hand through the wind and split it around him.

For a brief moment he was taken back to the rainy days on top of the lake besides the great tree, before he came back to his senses and absorbed what this meant, that he had the possible ability to control yet another element.

And so he had his clones continue their climbs, purposely journeying up the windiest parts in attempt to gain so semblance of control over the wind, which had begun to pay off much faster than the rain control as he could now take shelter from the harsh gales without lifting a finger.

His skill with manipulating water continued to stubbornly grow to new heights, he would clear the snow in his path up the mountains until he could focus his energy and lift his hands, the snow following the motion, completely up, revealing barren rock.

The largest test of his water manipulation had come when he was using his energy to vertically scale a particularly sharp incline.

The wind had been harshly assaulting his ears when a deep, distant rumble sounded from far above him.

The boy had paused, reasonably expecting the unexpected, as the sound echoed out over the snow.

Following the initial sound, more explosions of noise sounded off closer and closer, until his nature-enhanced vision kicked in and he was able to see past the white blanket of snow.

Only, when his view penetrated the thin layer of snow and wind that limited his sight, he was able to see more snow.

It was how much more that was the problem, far above him thousands of tons of snow rolled down, picking up speed and mass as it descended.

His breathing went from deep and controlled, to frantic and panicked.

With no feasible way to stop the force of nature, he was witnessing his death come crashing down...unless he used the nature against it.

With firm resolution to at least attempt to survive, his natural energy funneled through him and he shakily rose his hands.

As the snow sped up, gathering even more weight before it collided with him, he let loose a long, strained yell as his fingers spasmed, and his veins flexed.

Stalled above him, was billions of pounds of water in its colder form. For a single second he let himself revel in the feeling of relief, before painstakingly spreading his arms to allow the snow to fall past him.

He knew with certainty that before the mountains he would not be possible of such a feat, showing that his abilities were still improving whether he was aware of it or not.

That force of destruction had rivaled that of what he was capable, and resolved his decision to completely become one with the nature energy, he would need improvement for any future disasters such as that one.

Climbing the hills, splitting the wind, using natural energy, his new mantra to satisfy his strange need to train himself.

He did not necessarily know to what he was climbing, but logically there had to be a tallest point of them all, and he would use that vantage point to build off of what he already knew and escape from the slopes.

The boy had awoke without memories, but with a purpose to train. As his skills and knowledge grew, so did his apathy to life, and he revealed in his encounters with the creatures of the mountain just for some foreign emotion to remind him of the life he was still living, still surviving for another day.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 2. Stranger Mountains: Unique Developments

The freezing storm was picking up, whipping ice at lethal speeds around the mountain peak where the shirtless boy sat, his hair covering his eyes.

With a muted sigh he flowed to his feet with a grace that seemed supernatural, and twisted his hand through the air in foreign motions, completely nullifying the blizzard and the cutting wind that came with it.

He had only roamed the vast mountains for less than half of the time that he had spent residing in the strange jungle, but his in-depth knowledge of wind control had easily passed his skills with using water, though he was still unquestionably proficient with the liquid element.

Even with him able to sense that his body was made up of the very water he controlled, he couldn't describe how in-tune he felt with the wind, plugged in to the nature as he was.

Of course, with thousand of clones once again striving to gain ability, he should have expected his newfound dominance of the air, more so when he factored in how often he was using the boosted form of natural energy in cohesion with the physical spectrum.

If he so wished it he could, and had, obliterate any of the mountains in his path. They may have been gigantic structures of hard rock, but he now had access to both the razor sharp wind and the rotating force of water, able to grind away anything with the right amount of energy which he possessed more than enough of.

The touch of nature inside of him made it unclear on the true extent and separation of his talents. He knew as much as moving water meant water skills and wind to wind skills obviously, but they combined themselves in strange ways. He could maneuver water in any form, but with explosive speed, force, and especially precision, mirroring his wind control, which he could instantly use as it was all around him with the fluidity and flow of water. As always, his natural energy enhanced his already unique abilities.

The speed, strength, durability, and sensing were all highly valued to him as it helped him stay alive on more than one occasion, but his elemental capabilities were blending in with that of his nature mode, which he had reflected on more than once, it made sense as the elements he was using were a part of the nature, although he had to expend energy as a cost for its power.

When he sat very still, mediating on the top of the world, the winds brought him whispers of far away events and noises, filling his head with ideas and ears with sounds, every so often he listened to the jungle, dreaming of home while laying in the snow.

The coldness of the landscape did not affect him, not only could he control the temperature of the winds and water, but after deep meditation he had found the control to alter his own body temperature through the water inside of him, and give his body and another boost albeit small by completely absorbing all water into his muscle fibers and organs while retaining it naturally, a single drop of dew could carry him months if he so chose it before any effects would begin to show.

Over the time spent progressing and adapting he had moved further to the center of the mountain ranges and had been correct about the probability of once central peak. Days ago he had pushed over one of the higher peaks and was hit with the view of an enormous granite formation dwarfing all slopes around it, like an anthill to a volcano.

With that bright spot in his long, ice filled trek past the rainforest, his excitement had pushed him to blur past the remaining summits until he was pushing himself up the gigantic alp, but despite his energy enhanced speed it would still take multiple days to reach the top.

It was when he reached the halfway point that he was struck with wonder, as he turned around to look out below him. His augmented eyes took in the once colossal tree connected to a stretch of surrounding forest, a dip in a valley of mountains, but that wasn't all. As far as he could see were identical singular mountain crests kissing the sky, pockets of life in the form of jungles spotted throughout, dividing the slopes of earth.

' _It's not exactly unified, but there's a pattern.'_

Absorbing the breathtaking view only solidified his enthusiasm for finishing his climb, and he shot up once more.

* * *

Reaching the tip of the mountain was like reaching another world, but there was a certain familiar aspect of it. Just like in the middle of the giant tree hollow, or in the glowing cave with grass and water, there was a certain otherworldly sensation, _peaceful_ even _._

The commonality between all these anomalies in the nature was the sheer influx of natural energy that filled the area, rushing through his body and delivering a euphoric sensation.

It was for consecutive days that he stayed perched at the closest point to the heavens in bliss, it was as if he gained five more senses as absorbed everything around him in a trance, his energy permeating throughout the near world.

At the pinnacle of his concentration he began to inadvertently levitate off the ground, snow slowly melted around him before refreezing to hypnotically circle him, and green patterns were running down his eyes across his bear chest and back, while his closed eyelids were swallowed by the bright emerald color radiating from his pupils.

It was as he practically reached enlightenment that his senses disrupted his concentration.

Taking a second feel to validate his senses, he took on a considering expression.

' _Am I….moving?'_

* * *

He needed to get out there, he had to go find out.

Now that he accomplished the goal of finding any information of his surroundings, he had to _get_ there, without wasting anymore time.

His idea on just how to do that made him scan around for any manipulative snow leopards, as it seemed somewhat insane.

This brainchild was actually hatched when he sensed the movement of the mountains, finding himself levitating had opened a potential possibility of flight as he was already somewhat proven capable of it.

It was simply to beneficial to ignore, so with determination he willed the wind to shakily pick up his body, unsure how to maneuver his weight in the air.

Now he could feasibly stay upon the mountains for as long as he needed to, using clones and time to help him fly, but he had faith in his manipulation of the wind and he was weary of his bland environment, now that he knew there was something larger going on he couldn't sit still.

Raising himself higher into the thin altitude, he rotated in place until he was able to properly shift himself upright in a half-tensed state.

Tentatively the boy from the jungle began to move himself through the air, gaining more confidence the farther he went.

When he switched techniques on a whim from carrying himself through the air, to powerful undercurrents and gales, he started to glide, shooting across the sky like an arrow.

He couldn't help but laugh aloud to himself, the feeling of rocketing into the wind with absolute free movement was the most exciting thing he had experienced in his stressful life, it brought a sense of freedom to him.

Going at his top speed with his body's energy and that of nature's proved to be _a lot_ faster than running. It wasn't long before he had reached the edge of the mountain ranges, and then sailing over a different rainforest with another center tree standing out far below. The hexagonal domes of forest rushed passed him, staggered with a large field of mountains in between, until he crossed over the last threshold of rock.

Out past the the giant slopes was not more forest, but sand, stretching out for as far as he could see, as his nature energy left him the moment he was over the desert.

The dry air rushed back at him, as he lost control of his wind currents and began to plummet to the ground.

"Fuck! C'mon, C'mon" he frantically muttered, unable to draw any wind from the stale air, nor water from the dry sand.

His senses were slowly fading, there was nothing laid out in front of him but a grey void, null of any nature, and the location of the mountains were getting more distant as he continued to drop in the sky.

It was as if he had lost part of his sight, completely cut off from his way of life over the thousands of years he had gone through.

Those years still saved him however, as his ingrained instincts drew the still massive wells of energy within his own body and layered itself over his skin, repeatedly stacking and hardening his body.

The shock of impacting the ground was still heavily disorientating, it was hard to breathe from within the crater he had made in the sand, already spilling over him.

When he regained his bearings and climbed out, he allowed himself a single moment of disbelief.

' _I cannot believe this is actually happening. It's just one thing after another isn't it? Why can't I just fight something like I trained too?'_

Shaking his head once, he closed his eyes to calm himself, and then opened them in confusion.

When he had shut his eyelids the grey field of desert filled his head involuntarily, but when he looked closer since he wasn't falling to his death, there were little spots of nature spread far between the sand.

Intrigued, the boy stretched his only souvenir from home, a single vine from the great tree wrapped around his wrist, and tied his long hair back before setting off through the dunes.

* * *

The only thing that kept him from walking in circles was the small cluster of energy he was focused on, as his environment all looked the same.

When he finally approached the natural energy, he was able to see hundreds of green calluses spread out for hundreds of feet.

He slowly walked to the plants filled with water, when the grey area under his feet began to glow shortly and shift.

A humongous brown and yellow ridged shell began to crack out in an oval around the cactuses, and then rose up into the air, revealing a scaled turtle, its face cracked with lines and sand imbedded into its scaly skin.

A deep rumble emitted from the turtles throat and chest before a voice thundered out.

"I had, _wondered_ , whether you would come to the barren boy." it paused, drawing a raspy breath "I am called Komo"

The boy blinked, before replying "Komo, what is this place? I woke in a strange rainforest and now I find myself in the lifeless desert."

The giant turtle rolled out an abnormal bark of a laugh, "This is home."

He frowned, "Is there anything beyond the sand?"

Once again the turtle unnaturally chortled, "yes, yes, I suppose I may be _obliged_ to take ya"

His eyebrows scrunched down at this, "What do you mean you're obliged?"

"Why you don't got it figured out hatchling? You're ours boy, claimed ya with the link."

At his confused expression Komo bent down uncomfortably close and choked out a noise of humor.

"We're your summons boy! What're those shell-less forest snappers teachin ya!?"

"And just what is a...summon?"

"Ere' ya just...focus your energy go on now, use your hands hatchlin! A little drop of blood now hurry on, ahh ya can sense it can't ya?"

The boy felt a strange energy funnel inside him, with his blood acting as a reactant. He supplied a mild amount of energy as he focused on manifesting it.

A cloud of smoke appeared, covering a large red turtle, with a headband around his neck with the symbol for ' _leaf'_ on it.

The new turtle looked around the desert first, before being startled at the presence of Komo.

The red turtle started "Great elder! It's an honor of the highest degree to meet one such as you."

A mocking laugh answer him, "A chakra hatchlin! Ha well get over ere' boy meet what you summoned!"

The boy walked over to his summon, "Hello, how is it that you are here?"

"Well you summoned me here with your chakra, though I didn't know there was a new summoner, and one that's allowed to such a sacred place too…"

"Chakra? The energy within me that is? And what is this of a new summoner?"

"That's right chakra is the energy within all living things though some can use it better than others, and as for a new summoner there is only one that I am aware of, and he can only summon the lower tiers such as myself."

"Where is he? Who is he?"

"Far from where we are now, and his name is Might Guy."


End file.
